Go here to Politico to read the rest. Republicans should oppose any delay. The Democrats wanted this mess and should wallow in it. It is a great pity that so many Americans will suffer as a result, but the American people last year had a chance to defeat ObamaCare by defeating Obama and the chance was blown. There are penalties that go along with wishful thinking, gross ignorance and indifference to facts, and with the implementation of ObamaCare we Americans are going to learn, once again, the truth of the observation of Benjamin Franklin:

I think this is one of the several reasons that the shutdown as a mistake for the GOP. In the end, the gambit won as nothing, and we lost two weeks during which the utter failure of the ObamaCare exchanges could have been the number one story instead of the number two or three.

No, I think the shutdown was worth it. As the magnitude of this disaster begins to sink in, especially among the millions of people now having their pre-existing insurance cancelled because of ObamaCare, they will recall that the Republicans, at least the conservatives within the Republican party, attempted to prevent this. From a cold political calculus, ObamaCare implementation after a defeated GOP attempt to stop it places the Republicans in the best position to benefit from this fiasco.

But it seems like we could have achieved that effect by repeatedly passing legislation through the House that cancelled or delayed ObamaCare, without tying it to the the shutdown and debt ceiling. I agree it’s essential to keep fighting ObamaCare down the line, I’m just not sure that the shutdown got the message out very effectively.

Maybe my usual personal focus group of uninformed voters are off — but I’m concerned that too many of the unplugged voters who lamentably make up the swing vote in elections are convinced that the shutdown only occurred because “Republicans hate government” and not because we were trying to stave off the ObamaCare disaster.

As the magnitude of this disaster begins to sink in, especially among the millions of people now having their pre-existing insurance cancelled because of ObamaCare, they will recall that the Republicans, at least the conservatives within the Republican party, attempted to prevent this.

Not if Republicans don’t remind them, they won’t. Of course, any and all attempts to do so will be decried as “unhelpful,” “opportunistic,” “counter-productive,” etc., etc., so how likely is it to happen?

“only occurred because “Republicans hate government” and not because we were trying to stave off the ObamaCare disaster.”

The media and the Democrats will be peddling that narrative, but the reality of the pain of ObamaCare will be the overriding concern for people suddenly faced with their premiums going up and their deductibles greatly increasing. Not to mention the tax penalty that will be assessed for not having health insurance that most people I think do not yet understand. Additionally, a fair number of the base of the Republicans were energized by the shutdown attempt, not a small factor to take into consideration going into a midterm election of the last term of a Democrat president. No, although it was not planned by anyone, the failed shutdown attempt and the Obamacare disaster tie together nicely.

[A] fair number of the base of the Republicans were energized by the shutdown attempt, not a small factor to take into consideration going into a midterm election of the last term of a Democrat president.</blockquote

Except that what's energizing a not insignificant subset of that base, myself included, is the desire to punish the so-called establishment wing of the GOP, which they see as ineffectual at best.

Behold, the specter of Juan Williams. If you want to witness everything that is wrong with the low information voter today it can be summed up in one man. Juan Williams represents the lowest common denominator so well the LCD entry in Wikipedia has his picture embedded in it.